One of the largest trials of a four-day week in the UK led to greater retention and better productivity, according to the researchers following it.
South Cambridgeshire District Council began a controversial trial of a four-day working week between January and March 2023, which was then extended for another 12 months.
Staff were expected to carry out 100% of their work in 80% of the time for 100% of their salary. A study of the trial has now concluded that staff turnover fell by 39%, saving £372,000 on agency staff costs over a year.
Despite staff only working four days, household planning applications were decided around a week and a half earlier than before the trial, and approximately 15% more major planning decisions were completed within the correct timescale.
Employees also processed changes to housing benefits more quickly, and council tax benefit claims fell, the researchers said.
Four-day week
Overall, the trial showed improvements in performance in 11 out of 24 areas; little or no change in 11 areas; and a worsening of performance in two areas, according to the analysis by academics at the universities of Cambridge and Salford.
The areas in which it worsened were rent collection for council housing and the speed with which empty council houses were relet, they said.
The trial, which is the biggest public sector experiment of four-day working in the UK to date, caused controversy when it was launched – the then minister for local government Lee Rowley asked the council to end the trial “immediately”, claiming it could be breaching its legal duties.
A broad trial of the four-day week across the UK was hailed a success earlier this year. More than three-quarters of the 61 companies that took part said the arrangement had improved wellbeing, and 32% said it had improved recruitment.
Joe Ryle, director of the 4 Day Week Campaign that ran the UK-wide trial, said the South Cambridgeshire results showed “a huge opportunity for councils and organisations across the public sector to start planning for a four-day week”.
Some experts have cautioned that a four-day working week could widen inequalities, however. A social partnership tasked with looking into a potential pilot in Wales found that the arrangement could impact employees’ entitlements to welfare benefits or could exclude some groups of workers.
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